Tripods are essential for taking photographs, especially in the process of taking long exposure shots, such as sky-gazing, water falls or streams, night shots, close-ups, etc. The need for tripods therefore is not confined just to professionals; amateurs or novices would appreciate the benefit of tripods. One of the main functions of a tripod is to secure a still-image camera, a video camera, or an imaging capturing device to produce images with desirable effects on the resulting image.
A typical tripod includes a central platform rotatably connected to three legs or supports peripherally connected to the platform. The image capturing device is connected to the central platform and with varying heights permitted in the legs or supports, a user may raise or lower the height of the image capturing device. In existing tripods, each of the legs or supports includes a set of tubes arranged in a telescopic fashion to increase or decrease the length of the legs or supports. For example, each leg or support includes a first tube connecting to the platform on one end and connecting with a second tube on the other end. The second tube would connect with a third tube and so on. A nob is typically placed about the connection between the first tube and the second tube (or the second tube and the third tube, and so on) so that a user may tighten or loosen to enable the second tube to extend or retract from the other end of the first tube. A user may similar tighten or loosen another nob to extend or retract the third tube from the other end of the second tube. As the tubes are arranged in a nested arrangement, the diameter of the first tube is slightly larger than that of the second tube while the diameter of the second tube is slightly larger than that of the third tube, and so on.
Due to this arrangement, it is known that, in the process of loosening one of the nobs and in extending the length of a leg or support, the user may apply too much force in the process (either to the nob or on the tube or leg), resulting in separating the second tube from the first tube. This separation causes the end of the second tube being exposed. This significantly and negatively affect the use of the tripod, especially when the user has positioned the image capturing device to capture images and missing a leg stably supporting the image capturing device